Shanghai - Day Two

Thursday, Dec 27

Up to the sound of RAIN!!! No need to rush out and get wet. We relax a little first. For a deposit, the Hotel provides umbrellas. We are going to walk to the subway, then head downtown. Sight see, eat, meat up with Linda’s friend around 7. Sight see some more. Linda’s friend does not have an English name. They have known each other for five years, and he attends university in Shanghai.

We find the subway. It is about a one kilometer walk. The subway has a park-in-go ... For bikes! Not cars. We enter the subway, It is clean! Almost sanitary. The fares are by zones. Pay an amount to go into a zone. It costs us 3 ¥ to go downtown (about 35 cents) . There is a yellow strip painted on the floor where the door is, asking people to allow the passengers room to exit. People don’t read. As they crowd the door waiting for the train doors to open, I tell Linda ... this is a LIFO system, and you must let people OUT before you can enter, especially when the train is full. We board the train. Compared to TTC, the train has larger doors, and all the cars are articulated. You can walk from one end of the train to the other. A ticker board prints out information coinciding with the announcements. All stops are announced in Chinese followed by English. “This trains terminal station is Zhangjiang High Technology Park. . Next stop is People’s Square”

We get on the train and head downtown. We arrive at People’s Square in no time - three stops. We start at the statue in the park at the center of the city. I put on my “SUDBURY IS A ONE ARCH CITY” t-shirt, and take a few pictures. It is not the Great Wall, but best I can do this trip. Pete Smith, a high school friend, member fo the BAA, basketball, football and track teams with me, now runs the Delux Hamburgers at the Four Corners in Sudbury. I promised him a picture of me, the shirt and the Great Wall of China. Since I can’t visit my sister-in-law, who lives in Beijing, and would take me to the wall, he will have to settle for pictures of me in Shanghai. (For my friends who live in Sudbury and read this, ask Pete to check his email).

Next to the park and subway entrance is Shanghai Number One Department Store, world famous. We enter. It is 12 floors of shopping and fun. We make our way up to the tenth floor where we find “Madame Tussauds Wax Museum”, always a fun stop. Inside we find a large number of full size wax figures of famous people. Did you know how short Tom Cruise really is? Or how TALL Yao Ming is? I do now. Linda gets pictures with all the good looking men, while I get the ladies. I pose with Bruce Lee, square off against ARNOLD, and give guitar lessons to John Lennon. Linda has her eyes on Bill Clinton ... like every other woman except Hillary.

At 4 pm, we head back to the subway. We want to get to the Oriental Pearl Tower while it is still light, but also want to see all the city lights come on. Need to arrive around 4:30. The tower is 468 meters high, third tallest in the world. Guess which tower is first? Too easy? Ok .. Second? Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

As for buildings, Toronto has three in top 100, First Canadian Place at 37th, Scotia Plaza at 59 and BCE Place at 83. Shanghai has the Jin Mao Building at number 5, Shimao International Plaza at 18 (I have a story later about this building), Plaza 66 at 44th, Sunjoy Tomorrow Square at 47th , Hong Kong New World Tower at 57th, BOCOM Financial Towers at 72nd , Grand Gateway Plaza I and II at 79th and 80th . Very impressive skyline.

There is also one being built, Jin Mao Building II which is already taller than the Jin Mao Building, but not yet finished, so it is not on the list. It will be soon. You can see it being built some of the pictures.

We get to the base of the Orient Pearl tower, look up into the overcast sky, and see only ... clouds. After some discussion, we decide to go to the lower sphere. At least you can see some of the city. The lady selling tickets, in a rude manner, says we have to buy tickets to the top. They do not have tickets to the lower sphere only .. At least that is what I think she says. We then ask if we can walk around the base, and not enter, but she is rude, so we leave. We decide not to go in at all. Nothing to see but clouds. We take pictures from the outside, as many others do.

I see a young man trying to take a photo of himself in front of the tower. I offer to take one for him. I take several, but he has a poor quality camera. I take a few with mine, and email them to him.

Off Linda and I go, looking for new adventures. There is a tunnel from the tower side back to The Bund. We find the entrance, and it is a small subway car. Room for about ten people. Four seats. We take the ride, sitting in the front window. There is music and psychedelic lights. Not for someone on drugs . .. Well .... maybe ...

Back to the Bund. We walk around looking at buildings, people, boats. Although the sky is low and overcast, there are some pictures to be taken. Linda stops to read a poster in a pedestrian underpass, and I stand off to the side out of the way. Six young people come up to me, start asking me questions, amazed that I am wearing short sleeves. They are art students heading off to an art show, just around the corner. They ask us to join them.

The art is beautiful. Most from semi famous artists. We look around, take some pictures, then they try to sell us some. I am tempted. In particular is a set fo four seasons. The colours combinations are wonderful, with a green, purple, gold and white, representing the four seasons, and four stages of life. The “Selling price” is 200 ¥ each, but they will let me have all four for only 600 ¥ . I am tempted, almost offer 400 ¥, but in the end, walk away empty handed. One of the regrets I will have ... maybe I should have bought them. I left them my contact information. Given another chance, I may still buy.

Linda’s friend is waiting for us. He has finished his exam, and is wondering where we are. We leave the gallery, and head back to Bund to find him. He has no English name, and asks me to give him one. We walk along the Bund. All the buildings now have the evening lights on, giving a whole new perspective to the walk. I go shutter happy again. A security guard cheers at my hardiness, and is rewarded with a picture for my collection.

We grab a taxi and head to Xin Tian Di for some dinner. We arrive and walk around looking for something I like. There are French and German cuisine, and several other restaurants, but no Pub type place. We finally settle on a place, and sit and eat. The food is good, but the prices are Western prices, very expensive for China. Most of the people walking around are tourists and expats ... short for expatriate which means “One who has taken up residence in a foreign country.”

After dinner we head to VEN ICE, the ice cream store. Linda does know about ice cream, so she asked me to order. I ordered ONE banana split and THREE spoons. I was rather clear what I wanted. As I spoke, I pointed to the banana splits and raised one finger. Then I pretended to eat, pointed to what would have been a spoon, and raised three fingers. They brought THREE banana splits. I immediately pointed out the error, but they insisted we pay for them. I was going to stand my ground, and only pay if the police were called and I was about to be arrested, but Linda was afraid, and she paid for the extra two. I have the business card, but not sure what a letter would do. Hey cost 68 ¥ each or about 9 dollars a banana split! Another story of a Lau Wai (spelling) in China. I can now brag the I was Shanghaied in Shanghai.

Back into a cab, and now to walk the famous Nanjing Road. It is a street blocked from traffic, with shopping everywhere. We walk from the Bund back to People’s Square, about 1.5 kilometers. Neon lights fill the skyline, and people everywhere. It is cold, for them, so not many by their standards, but still pretty busy.

Ahead I see a tall building. It is the one in the pictures with two tall towers raising up from it, and 18th tallest in the world. In the night, with neon flashing, it looks like “SHINA” on the side of the building. A ask “what is SHINA (rhymes with China) ?” Both Linda and her un-named friend start to laugh. It is SHIMAO (pronounced She Mao) with the A and O in a corporate design. One of our running jokes for the next two days is I want to go to Shina (rhymes with China).

We get to People’s square. Our un-named friend is about to get a name. He leads us down a side street, which is a dead end. He now says he does not know where we are. I name him “LOST”

We continue to walk along, past a building with an upside down arch on the roof. A really unique design, and there are many here, but this one stands out among the many unique designs. The building is not lit up, and I complain that the most beautiful and unique building shod be lit. I will try to get pictures the next day, but need to know what it is. We find the sign .. It is the “Shanghai Grand Theatre” . It is truly an amazing looking building.

When I was a guest speaker at a conference at Stony Brook University on Long Island a few years ago, I saw a Hummer dealer, and thought that Long Islanders much be very rich to justify a Hummer dealer. Tonight I passed a corner which outdid that. On the south west corner was a Ferrari and Maserati dealer. On the North west was a Mercedes Benz dealer, and on the north east was a Porsche dealership. I was looking for my Jaguar dealership, but didn’t see one. I am sure it was not far. I prefer a Jag over the other four, a two seater, 12 cylinder ...maybe after this book is published or the movie of my life is released.

I put the camera away for the night, we walk back to the Bund, and Lost gets on a bus to go back to his dorm. Linda and I jump in a taxi. Tired, sore, but happy, it was an enjoyable day overall. We figure we walked about 10 - 12 Km, took two subway rides, an under water sightseeing train, three taxis, saw many new things, met some wonderful art students, and gave LOST his English name. Tomorrow will be new adventures.